


Safety First

by Vlindervin



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Fluff, I hate tags, M/M, solangelo, stunt performer!Nico
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 23:13:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10954710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vlindervin/pseuds/Vlindervin
Summary: AU in which Nico is a stunt performer. Will sees his boyfriend perform and is like 'DUDE, STOP’, but also like 'HOT’ and then they kiss.





	Safety First

Ever since he was little, Will’s been a safe person. He’s the one telling everyone to wear seatbelts in the car when he’s driving, despite the fact that he’s the most careful driver any of his friends know. He doesn’t run in swimming pools. He brushes his teeth two times a day, without ever skipping once. He’s careful and he’s _safe_.

His dad died when Will was seven years old, car crash, texting while driving and if you have a twisted sense of humor you might see the irony in the fact that he was texting his wife to tell her he’d be home soon.

_I’ll be home in ten, honey_

Only, after ten, twenty, thirty minutes he still wasn’t there. But the thirty-fifth minute brought a phone call. Not from his dad, but the police this time. Will can still remember the look on his mother’s face when she heard what had happened, the one scream she released before being left with crystal tears, silent sobs. He doesn’t think he’ll ever forget.

As a med student, Will knows things like that are no rarity. Will at seven might have though the world had stopped spinning and that the sun was hiding from their sharp grief; it did not stop raining for six days straight. He might have thought that with his and his mom’s tears and the ones falling from the sky the world would overflow, that surely nothing this bad had ever happened, ever. Truth was, while Little Will thought he was alone in his pain, another car was crashing into a tree barely five streets away. Drunk driving, this time.

Will at twenty-one knows that most accidents can be avoided. He knows that at least half of the people in the waiting room at the hospital wouldn’t be there if only they would’ve been more careful. But it’s not his job to tell them that. It’s his job to make sure they’re safe and can go home safe and live a safe life. That’s been his aspiration since his father’s funeral, when he heard some old woman – aunt of his father’s – say that _if only he’d been more careful. Things like this happen all the time. You can’t read the newspaper without being informed about yet another death. When will people learn to be more careful?_

That’s the moment Will vowed to always be careful, so he never leaves his future children father-less.

He’s stayed to true to this vow. He’s safe and he tells everyone around him to be careful and takes care of the people he loves. His life is fine. He dates sometimes, when he has time between his studies. He has a couple of girlfriends, a couple of boyfriends, but they never stick and he figures he just hasn’t found the right person. And his life is fine, careful and not always too exciting, but fine.

Then he meets Nico. He has hair like charcoal and eyes the color of dark chocolates. He’s probably the most beautiful person Will’s ever seen.

They both find themselves at Percy and Annabeth’s baby shower. Their first child is a daughter named after Sally. She’s adorable, but after half an hour she falls asleep and there’s not much else to do beside talking with the guests. Percy introduces Will to Nico, sets them both on the couch and tells them to eat and drink as much as they want.

The stark difference between them is honestly kind of hilarious. Will’s a med student and tries to smile as much as he can so that maybe someone who’s having a bad day will somehow find a bright spot in his smile. It’s a small thing and probably doesn’t even work, but Will likes it and when people smile back, he feels like he’s accomplished something. Will laughs a lot too, he tries to be positive, most of the time. His father may have died, but he lets that give him the strength he needs to become a doctor and be nice because he knows life can be over in a second. People like him and he likes people.

Nico, however, is wearing all black the first time they meet. He’s shorter than Will and doesn’t look like he smiles a lot at all. He greets Percy and Annabeth with a strained lift of his mouth and it almost looks like it hurt. He doesn’t talk and when eventually Will finds himself next to Nico, he tries to make conversation, but apparently small talks doesn’t come easy to him.

After a while, though, Will decides to go get a drink. It’s snowing outside and he needs the warm-me-up. He offers Nico a drink and surprisingly he accepts. Still sitting, Nico looks up at Will through his eyelashes and the warm brown of his eyes is covered by his dark, long lashes casting shadows across his cheekbones. His lips are incredibly red and are dry of being bitten on. The look he gives Will is not so much closed-off as it is shy and insecure. Will’s stomach does a funny thing. _Butterflies?_

‘Hot chocolate?’, he answers when Will asks if he wants anything.

‘Really?’ It’s surprising coming from a guy who looks like he’s trying to shield himself from all light by wearing dark colors. (The scientist in Will scoffs that dark colors attract light and warmth, actually. The hopeless romantic inside Will dreamily sighs that that would make the two boys perfect for each other. Normal Will ignores them both because hello? Irrelevant.) He’s kind of scary, if Will is being honest with himself. The sharp looks Nico keeps sending around the room are intimidating, okay? Will has never pretended to be fearless.

Nico raises his eyebrows at Will’s surprised expression. ‘You don’t look like someone who would order hot chocolate’, he explains.

‘Who _doesn’t_ like hot chocolate?’

‘Point. But still.’

Nico is quiet for a couple of seconds, looks Will over and apparently finds what he was looking for because then he asks: ‘What do I look like I would ask for, then?’

Will’s a little taken aback by the question. ‘Well, if I’m being honest I didn’t expect you to want anything at all. But I guess you look like someone that says things like ‘Coffee. Black.’’

‘What, like my soul?’

‘Your words, not mine.’

‘Black coffee is disgusting.’

‘Black coffee is great!’

‘Of course you’d think that.’

‘You don’t even know me.’

‘Well, I guess you look like someone who says things like ‘I like the natural taste of coffee’, which again, fucking disgusting.’

Will can’t help but chuckle at his words being thrown back at him and about the fact that Nico is… actually right. Is Will that easy to read?

His silence is answer enough apparently.

‘Knew it.’ And now Nico is smiling too. It looks good on him. His eyes shine and he has a _dimple_. Dear God, Will is weak.

So, he gets them both hot chocolate.

‘Couldn’t resist the drink of the gods, after all?’, Nico comments smugly when Will hands him the cup. Will doesn’t dignify that with a response, instead does what every grown adult would do in this situation and sticks out his tongue.

‘Convincing argument,’ Nico mumbles in his cup, taking a sip and chuckling.

The next three hours go by rather quickly. Nico seems like a very secretive person, because he barely tells Will anything of importance about himself except for little things. His side of the conversation consists mostly of dry remarks and jabs at whatever Will is saying, but he manages to make Will laugh harder than he has in a long time. Nico doesn’t laugh as much as Will does, but when he does smile or allows himself a laugh, Will’s heart beats four times harder and his mind turns blank for a second, full of Nico’s laughter and the sheer joy of the sound. There’s this thing he does when he laughs, where he turns his head and brings a hand to his mouth, looks back after a while with sparkling eyes and his dimple more prominent than ever. It’s fucking cute. Though Will doesn’t say that. He has a feeling Nico wouldn’t appreciate being called cute or adorable.

The baby shower ends, Nico and Will two of the last ones left. Eventually Will goes home, barely having seen the baby, but with a phone number in the pocket of his coat and a dumb smile on his face.

*

As said before, Will is a safe person. Until he meets Nico.

Nico is not dangerous, per se. He’s a wonderful person. They go on a couple dates, have a lot of fun and when he sees Nico, Will often has the impression to be higher than anyone else, his mind is foggy from all the laughing and he’s not sure how it feels to smoke weed exactly, but he figures it resembles this.

After their second date, Nico walks Will home because he’s a goddamn gentleman and when they get there they don’t say anything and smile awkwardly like they’re some cheesy, straight Hollywood couple. Then Nico pulls Will down and crashes their lips against each other. The night ends with Will being pushed against a wall and Nico’s mouth taking away every one of his thoughts except for Nico’s lips and scent and wow. Maybe he’s not that much of a gentleman, after all.

No, Nico is a wonderful person, their relationship is amazing and Will is falling in love.

The problem doesn’t lie there. The problem is that Nico is – Nico is a stunt performer and Will cannot for the life of him understand why.

He knows more about Nico now. He knows his mom died, he knows his sister died. His father’s alive, but he might as well not be seen as their relationship consists of awkward Thanksgiving dinners and uncomfortable phone calls when there’s a birthday.

Initially he started stunting to be able to get lost in the sensation and adrenaline of the moment and forget about all that’s happened and the pain in his chest. And after a while, it became a hobby because it turned out he actually liked it. The feeling of flying and calculating the distance and speed needed to do the stunt perfectly.

When Nico tells Will, all the latter can do is sigh and shake his head because again _why_?

Will can’t control what other people do with their lives and if this makes Nico happy then – all he wants is for Nico to be happy. It’s going to be painful, he knows. But he’ll just have to learn to live with it. So after the explanation to the eternal question of _why_ , Will kisses Nico’s cheek and asks him when his next performance is.

‘I’m supposed to do one in two weeks,’ Nico answers.

‘Do you think I could come watch?’

Nico shrugs. ‘Sure, I don’t see why not. As long you as you don’t freak out.’ Will knows that possibility is very real.

‘I’ll try.’

*

So, here he is. Sitting on a bench, between a mass of other people already with their phones out. His heart is beating fast and his hands are clammy. He thought he was ready for this, but apparently he’s not. At all. Not one bit prepared for this.

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Cheers erupt all around him and when he opens his eyes, there’s a motorcycle ready. Will recognizes the way Nico holds himself and he can see a bit of black hair coming out of his helmet.

In front of him there are cars, some fire, some ramps.

_On average, there are 5000 motorcycle deaths in the US per year._

How many time does Will have to help people at the hospital who get into crashes on their motorcycle? A lot. And the fire? God, if he keeps this up, he’ll have a panic attack. How does Nico manage to do this all the time. He looks completely at ease on his bike, he’s fixating the obstacles determinately and he looks completely in his element.

He grips the handles a little tighter, Will imagines his knuckles turn white under the leather gloves he’s wearing. He straightens his back and turns his head to the spectators. The glass on the helmet is still pushed up. His eyes find Will’s in the crowd and his lips quirk up into a smirk. Just before lowering his glass to shield his eyes, he sends Will a wink. It does nothing to calm Will down.

Well, maybe it calms him down a little. Something in his stomach is trying to fight its way out, because the swooping almost hurts. That’s how nervous he is. But now there’s something else in his stomach too, something that only comes up when Nico is involved. When he bites his lip, messes up his hair in frustration. When he winks.

The roar of the engine snaps him out of his thoughts and it’s back to the beast, the butterflies all eaten. Everyone around him claps and starts cheering when Nico kicks off and leaves a cloud of dirt behind. Will wants to close his eyes and keep them closed until his boyfriend is done and alive and completely safe, but he can’t. His eyes just refuse to. They’re attached to Nico’s movements and his stunts. He can’t look away. Every time the bike flies up, falls back down, flies through a loop, evades the fire out to burn him alive, Will’s heart follows the movement and only calms down when it’s over And before it has the time to settle, there Nico goes again.

The feelings inside Will are a mixture of fear and love and protectiveness. He wants to stop Nico, to take him home and watch a movie and to not worry. Why couldn’t he have chosen a more normal hobby, like playing an instrument or something? Why did Will have to fall in love with a _stunt performer_ out of all people?

The other feelings mixed with these ones are… respect and awe, admiration. Because it’s clear he knows what he’s doing and enjoys it and well, Will can’t be totally against that. He may be a strong advocate for _safety first_. But he also wholeheartedly believes in doing what makes you happy and taking the most out of life because he knows how quickly it can be over and so does Nico.

It’s a conflict inside him. Thinking life can be over tomorrow and taking advantage over it. Doing exactly that and doing things that could potentially end your life immediately.

Will doesn’t know which side of him is stronger and he can’t decide right now because Nico does a summersault, lands and the gravel explodes all around him when his wheel comes down hard.

And it’s over.

Will realizes he’s been gripping his seat since the beginning of the performance. He lets go and tries to move the cramps away. Nico jumps off his bike, takes off his helmet and he shakes his head to loosen his hair. It moves around him like black waves and it eventually sticks messily and glorious. He’s smiling as wide as he did after they kissed for the first time and he looks _alive_.

He’s beautiful and Will has the sudden urge to kiss the life out of him and to then kill him for giving Will fifteen heart attacks and to then kiss him again until he can’t breathe. If he manages to stand up, anyway. It seems his legs have turned into jelly.

Nico jumps and salutes the cheering crowd, then he catches Will’s eyes again and motions for him to meet him behind the bleachers. Well, Will is not going to say no to an energetic, high on adrenaline Nico wanting to meet him behind the bleachers. He feels like he’s meeting the star player on the high school team after they won a match behind the bleachers and everyone knows what that means.

Will carefully maneuvers between the people sitting down, waiting for the next performer to start. He tries to calm his heartbeat, reminds himself that nothing happened at all. Nico is not hurt, he didn’t fall down, he’s not _dead_. He didn’t want to expressively admit it before, but some part of him was seriously expecting Nico to crash and have his head splashed out in front of him, like a peach falling from a high height. He was aware that Nico does this all the time, that he’s a professional, he knows what he’s doing, it’s fine. But he also knows that it could take one wrong move and – no, stop, it’s over. Nico is alive and well, and _waiting for him_.

He quickens his steps and there he is. Will didn’t see that earlier, he was sitting too far away, but Nico has a glint, a bright sparkle in his eyes. He smiles when he sees Will arrive and again, Will is struck by the sheer beauty of the man in front of him. The man he gets to call his boyfriend for God’s sake and he almost can’t believe. And said boyfriend may be a stunt performer and find his joy in doing extremely dangerous things that do extremely dangerous things to Will’s heart, but if that’s what makes him look like he’s on top of the world and he could do anything if only he tried, then so be it. He will simply have to learn to live with that.

And the way Nico all but attacks Will mouth before he can even utter a word, certainly isn’t a bad side effect.

Nico takes Will’s face in his hands and pushes him against the back of the bleachers. His mouth is pressed against his and it’s all intense and wet and extremely hot. Nico takes Will’s lower lip between his teeth and behind them the people cheer. For the next performer most likely, but it could’ve been for this one too, Will thinks. It’s all a blur. It’s not like he can form rational thoughts right now, anyway.

Will grips Nico’s hair between his fingers, making it even more messy than Nico managed to do earlier. Nico groans and detaches his lips from Will only to attach them to his neck instead. He leaves a wet trail of kisses all over his neck and lightly bites down on his collarbone.

Yeah, if this is the way every one of his performances ends, he might actually come to enjoy them.

‘Too much adrenaline?’, he manages to let out between gasps. It’s a miracle, really, that he’s able to form words and make his lips say them.

Nico pauses what he’s doing to Will’s neck to look at him. His lips are swollen and red and when he says: ‘I have to let it out somehow. You complaining?’, they wrap around the words so sweetly, Will seriously thinks he’s about to lose it and do – he doesn’t know what, but _something_ – when they’re interrupted by a woman coming behind the bleachers to make a phone call and getting away from the crowd.

She apologizes when she sees them and gets ready to find another place, when she apparently recognizes Nico and decides now is a good time to congratulate him on his performance. She even shakes his hand and all that. Well, now the mood is not only ruined, but entirely gone.

Both boys catch their breath for a while when she finally leaves, just looking at each other, with a considerable amount of space between them.

‘So, you’re still alive?’, Nico eventually says, breaking the silence.

‘I should ask you that, you _jumped through fire_.’

‘I know,’ Nico answers, crossing his arms and putting a smirk on his face. ‘Again, you still alive?’

Will huffs. ‘Barely.’

‘Should I call an ambulance? Is your heart okay?’ Will wants to wipe away the damned smirk decorating Nico’s face.

‘Well sue me for being worried about you.’

Nico smiles and steps closer to Will. He strokes away a strand of hair out of his face. ‘I like that you are. Did you enjoy yourself a little bit, though? Just a little?’

‘A little,’ Will reluctantly admits. ‘You clearly know what you’re doing and I respect that. And it looks like you really love it. I like seeing you like this.’

‘Like what?’

Will is quiet for a second, forming his thought. ‘You look alive. And you smile more easily. You know I love you’re smile.’

Nico’s expression turns soft at Will’s words. He smiles, a little, private, sweet smile and softly pecks Will on the lips. There’s a light blush on his cheekbones.

‘And I mean, if you kiss me like this after, I don’t see why I should be complaining.’

At this, Nico lifts his eyebrows, promptly wiping away the soft look on his face. ‘Really? Let’s go home, then. Finish where we left off?’

Will lets Nico take his hand and lead the way to the car.

*

Will’s always been a safe person, some might say a little too safe.

But then he meets Nico and he falls in love and it’s probably the least safe things he’s ever done. Because he has no control over his feelings, it’s all unexpected and spontaneous.

Nico’s eyes make him want to do reckless things and his lips convince him to let loose and just get taken by the tide and not stay on the shore all his life. To let the waves carry him. It might not be the most sensible, the most _safe_ thing to do, but it’s the fun thing to do. It’s taking advantage of what’s there and going through life and enjoying the things that come your way and open opportunities to jump and fly and feel alive.

It’s living and not worrying all the time.

Will is still a somewhat safe person, but a little less so with Nico by his side. It’s a good compromise and he goes to bed almost every night with a smile on his face feeling like he used his day the right way and as if yes, this is life. This is love. His life is exciting and he’s happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Catch me on tumblr how 'bout dat  
> Vlindervin7
> 
> Love,   
> Jasmine


End file.
